IS THE FUTURE OF WOMEN'S HEALTH TIED TO CLINICAL TRIAL INCLUSION ?

Let's begin by understanding what a medical research gender gap is. Firstly, clinical trials are the study of things such as new drugs or drug combinations, new surgery methods, new medical devices, new ways to use existing treatments, new ways to change behaviors to improve health, and new ways to improve quality of life for people with acute or chronic illnesses. Often at times, there is an ongoing lack of research tools to include sex differences in the study or analysis. For example in the earlier stages of research, female animals are excluded or they fail to distinguish the data by sex, include hormone status or any other gender-specific details. This results in a research gender gap which can hamper the ability to identify differences.

One of the reasons why women were historically excluded from research and clinical trials is that, depending on where a woman is in her menstrual cycle, the variation of her hormones were said to "complicate" the results. This variability would mean more subjects were needed in clinical trials, thereby increasing costs. Moreover, national institutes recommended that women of childbearing age be left out of trials due to threat for unborn children. And research done by male researchers on male subjects was justified by the belief that this would also work for women. Well, this assumption certainly came with disastrous consequences. For instance, women experience some different common symptoms of heart attack other than chest pain such as nausea and jaw pain which are less likely to happen to men. But since the diagnosis prefers male biology, women are often misdiagnosed, diagnosed late, or even told that much of the pain they’re experiencing is "in their head"

And guess what, this call for inclusion isn’t new but can be traced back to the women’s health movement that began in the 1960s. Although we have made progress and implemented policies that require scientists to account for the role of sex as a biological variable while conducting studies on both animals and humans, we still have a long way to go. If we are to approach it from the roots, we don't even have equal representation among medical research today. “ there is quite a gap when it comes to research whether that is in program directors or research coordinators. and this is something we specifically address within the women in ophthalmology society all across the world. what we are doing right now as doctors and researchers are setting up clinical research clubs within those women in ophthalmology societies to enroll as many women in ophthalmology as possible. We are having great female leadership in that regard and very high rates of enrollment. However, the issue cannot be solved by just doing that and I believe that within the departments whether that is in universities or hospitals, the leaders of the department should be more inclusive and overcome the stereotype that women doctors are not interested in research, surgery or excellency in general. “ said Dr. Imane Tarib ( MD, Ophthalmologist ) when interviewed for this article. Additionally, the lack of funding for women’s health is still an issue. Research done in the UK shows that roughly 16% of the population will experience an issue that receives only 2.5 % of the annual research budget.

When asked, besides policy makers if there was something individuals could do especially young medical students, Dr. Imane replied “No one can overcome something without being aware of it. Awareness to me would play a pivotal role in young people especially the medical students because if they are still in med school and they are aware of the gender gap then they wouldn't be unconsciously re-enforcing those stereotypes that led to having that gender gap in the first place. So I think awareness would play a tremendous role and this can be done nowadays fortunately through social media, clubs, societies, so many platforms are available to reach that awareness. so they can grow up in a new generation with different ideas that will hopefully lead us to not having that gap anymore. “

Well one thing is evident in regards to the medical research gender gap, where we stand on the line of conversation to action will have an immense impact on women's health

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By Ayshka Najib

Content writer at But Society Says